 Rodney Spradlin starts to coach his players in the freezing weather in the middle of February, in order to prepare for the upcoming baseball season.
Coach Spradlin is the new to the Raiders this year. He takes over the baseball team after Coach Eric Lawrence got his 300th varsity baseball win. The weather in February this year is different from usual, it’s only 30 degrees outside and there is also strong wind mixed in the cold air. A lot of players don’t understand his decision to practice in such inclement weather. “I hate losing games more than practicing in cold weather.” Spradlin said. This quote showed his enthusiastic attitude towards baseball, and his desire to lead the North Cross baseball team to win ball games. “My expectations for y’all is to beat Miller School this year,” Spradlin said. “It doesn’t matter who we play against, our mindset should be we have a chance to beat anybody even though our opponent is the New York Yankees.” Miller School’s baseball team is just now ranked as the top 25 baseball team in the nation, but just like what Coach Spradlin said, he will use his positive attitude to lead the North Cross baseball team to become the team that has a chance to win against anybody. “I hope that all of us will have the belief that we will win when we go on the bus to play against Miller, and say to me that we got it, Coach Spradlin.” Spradlin said.
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 Sadies Dance makes the dorm gradually become empty, so a couple of international students from Vietnam decided to find some fun downtown while most of the dorm students went to the dance. It was a busy week for the North Cross basketball team, they played three games in four days and two of them were away games. Kevin Tran ‘26 (behind Alex on the left) is a member of the JV basketball team, who played two straight away games. All those basketball games made Tran want to skip the dance. Alex Nguyen ‘27 (on the right) is a very close friend with Tran. He chose to stay at the dorm with Tran instead of going to Saidies. They went out to eat, and after they finished eating, the azure blue pool tables attracted their attention on the way back to the dorm and they decided to go in. Tran played pool a lot in Vietnam, but Nguyen never played pool before. Tran taught Nguyen step by step. Tran set everything up for Nguyen, he set all the balls up, and even fixed Nguyen’s hand position on the pool stick. Tran released his hand from the stick after everything was all set. Nguyen held his breath and hit the ball out, the orange ball drew a beautiful trajectory and went straight to the net. “Let’s go! ” Nguyen said, “playing pool is so fun.” Ngyuen’s expression could hardly conceal his inner excitement after he hit the first ball into the net. While they are all immersed in the joy of hitting the ball in, they might not notice, the real fun thing is not the pool itself, the real fun thing is their strong-bonded friendship.
 Jason Bach ’25 prepares for another jersey day by wearing his country’s colors. Bach is from Vietnam, and he is playing varsity soccer this fall. “I’m wearing this jersey because it’s senior night for the soccer team tomorrow,” Bach said. “I want to express my love for my favorite sport and my home country by wearing a Vietnamese soccer jersey.” Due to the cancellation of the Powderpuff Game during the Homecoming week, the exciting second jersey day for Upper school is taking place this week. Although there are not as many people wearing jerseys compared to the first jersey day, Jason’s bright red soccer jersey from Vietnam impresses everyone. Bach lives in Boxley Building in downtown Roanoke, but you can’t even see him in the building before 8 p.m. every weekday. The reason behind it is he always goes to the gym to do lifting after every soccer practice, day after day. This spirit of hard work makes his soccer skills better and better, and his body stronger and stronger. “I’m already in my senior year of high school this year,” Bach said, “I hope that I can face life and soccer with my fullest mental state and draw a successful conclusion for my high school career.”
 As the sky gradually darkens on an October evening, Carter Smith ‘25, Aleksa Zivanov ‘27, Thomas Greer ‘25, Charlie Zhao ‘26, and Hanchen Ou ‘26 from North Cross School set out on a journey to eat delicious food. North Cross school gathers students from 13 different countries all around the world, it is precisely because of this situation that students from North Cross have the opportunity to try each other’s hometown delicacies. K-Pot is a restaurant that offers a hot pot buffet, and hot pot is very famous in Asia. Carter Smith ‘25 is a student from Canada, and he is very interested in Asian food, so he decided to give it a shot. “How should I cook the meat in the hot pot?” Smith asked. Smith’s questions are the most common question for the people who are eating hot pot for the first time. Charlie Zhao ‘26 is from China, he taught Smith how to eat hot pot step by step. “You need to put the meat into the hot pot first,” Zhao said. “You may eat the meat when the meat changes color.” Smith put the meat into the hot pot as Zhao said, and picked out the meat after it changed color. “It tastes so good,” Smith said, “I never ate meat in this way in my life, but it actually impressed me.” After Smith’s first bite, he just couldn’t stop eating. “I like hot pot so much,” Smith said, “what else can I say at this point, Food knows no border…” Photo by Thomas Greer ‘25.  While the bell is ringing in the hallway, we walk into English and Government teacher Brett Odom’s classroom for the activity period for our summer reading novel The Hound of Baskervilles. Odom welcomed us with his bright smile as always. Odom told us that we are going to act out some of the plots in The Hound of Baskervilles. Kevin Tran’ 26 is a new student at NCS, and he told Odom that he didn’t read the book during summer. Odom understands the difficulty of summer reading for international students, so he started to guide Tran step by step. “This activity went way better than I expected,” Tran said, “I was afraid of getting in trouble by not reading the book, but Odom’s behavior made me feel very comfortable about it.” Odom gave Tran the character of Sir Henry, and explained to him what he needs to do in the reenactment. I could see that Tran was overwhelmed in the beginning, but Odom used his passionate performance to make Tran start to enjoy the acting process. He changed from just reading the text to starting to use his body language. Time flies, and the class is over. Tran seems still immersed in the character, and couldn't get out. “I hope we can have another activity like this soon in the future,” Tran said.
 This year is my first summer in the United States, and this invitation to the National Baseball showcase can summarize my summer best among a lot of great memories. I went to Duke University for the baseball try out. I tried my best on the field and performed really well during the game. Afterwards, good news came to me. I got selected to the National Baseball Showcase, and this event is only for the top baseball players all around the United States. Someone from the staff of the showcase said, “ You are the first Chinese person to get this invitation.,” I was shocked after I learned this information. I sent this picture to my parents in China as soon as I got it. They gave me great encouragement as feedback. I think the encouragement from my parents is my greatest motivation to move forward because they are the most important people in my life. I’m glad I was invited by the organization, and I’m so excited to play and perform myself at an MLB stadium as the first Chinese baseball player later this fall.
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I am hanchen
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